Iron Realms Entertainment - WoWhttp://www.ironrealms.com/taxonomy/term/1364/0
enFive Potential MMO Movieshttp://www.ironrealms.com/five-potential-mmo-movies
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<p>Anticipated by WoW players for several years now, the&nbsp;<a title="warcraft film" href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Warcraft_(film)">Warcraft&nbsp;movie</a>&nbsp;will serve as a prequel to the mmorpg game, beginning at least a year before where the current storyline picks up. Chris Metzen, vice president of creative development at Blizzard Entertainment, announced at BlizzCon 2007 that a brand new, “kick-ass Human” is the movie’s main character -- and it’s not the same one featured in the comic! Boasting big names like screenwriter Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot) and Sam Raimi (the Spiderman trilogy), Blizzard Entertainment, who owns the World of Warcraft game, will produce the movie with Legendary Pictures (partnered with Warner Brothers).</p>
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<p>The process to bring the the epic story behind the game to the big screen is painfully slow. Raimi, in attempt to fully immerse himself into his work, now enjoys playing a level seventy-two Shaman. Playing the game helped him to both understand its finer points and know where to take liberties with lore and other background elements. One has to wonder, could Raimi have learned the same details and potentially speeded production if he’d stopped at level fifty, and perhaps put the time spent playing from there to level seventy-two into the movie instead?</p>
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<h3>5 Possible MMO Movies</h3>
<p>If Iron Realms decided to take one of its text games to the big screen, Achaea is the obvious choice. The oldest of all five MMORPGs produced by Iron Realms, Achaea is still the most popular and boasts the largest player base. If following suit of other movies inspired by MMORPG or video games, it would obviously start with key elements from lore, otherwise known as the Mythos.</p>
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<p>But which part of Mythos? Maya’s legacy with the birth of two strange babes fathered by the Unnamable Horror? Or would it move simply into the Wars of Humanity and flashback to the tales of the Offspring? Or would it move past all that and begin simply with a tale of two brothers, Sahart and Glanos, who both loved and sired children with Enalia, lovely daughter of Pasiphae? There is enough material here to support several years’ worth of episodes for a made-for-cable series!</p>
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<h3>Casting an MMORPG Film</h3>
<p>With the magic of computer animation, the idea of an Iron Realms movie isn’t that far-fetched. I can totally see Paul Giamatti playing a toga-clad Clementius, zapping any mortal who dared using any ill-fated nicknames for the Divine character. And who can’t picture a raw, tribal Nicole Kidman as the cataclysmic goddess Artemis, her lightly muscular form dressed in loosely wrapped vines, with messy burgundy curls with fiery copper highlights framing her heart-shaped face and tumbling over her shoulders. Or best of all, Hugh Jackman as Phaestus! Oh...yeah. For the sake of keeping reality separate from the game, I’d turn in every week to watch Hugh swing a forging hammer -- despite my character’s disdain for the Smith Lord!</p>
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<p>Do you agree? Is Achaea the best choice for an Iron Realms movie? Which celebrities would you like to see portraying your favorite Divine characters or denizens -- or even your own character? Explore answers to these questions and leave your comments in the space below!</p>http://www.ironrealms.com/five-potential-mmo-movies#commentsblizzardhollywoodlegendary picturesmmoMMORPGmoviessam raimiwarcraft filmWoWMon, 24 Oct 2011 16:01:53 +0000Aktillum of Achaea549 at http://www.ironrealms.comPlayer Housing in MMORPGs - Is it here yet?http://www.ironrealms.com/player-housing-in-mmorpgs-is-it-here-yet
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<p>Several emotions come to mind when it comes to owning a personal space in a MMORPG, including excitement, pride, and belonging. What better way for your character to become invested in the community than to put down roots with the purchase of a private home! Regardless of the game, most players enjoy the option to own property -- whether they take the opportunity or not. According to the website <a title="Massively article on player housing" href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/04/04/the-daily-grind-do-you-want-player-housing/">Massively</a>, player housing has “had a long and interesting history ever since Ultima Online pioneered the idea.”</p>
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<p>Paid members of the MMORPG Runescape are able to build houses from the ground up -- quite literally, along with furniture and other accessories by milling the lumber, et cetera. In a blog titled “<a title="player housing in mmos" href="http://kfsone.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/player-housing-in-mmos/">kfsone’s pittance</a>” the author states:</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;">The Star Wars Galaxies housing system was incredible, but don’t give it too much credit: it was actually the SWG engine that made it possible to have such an impressive housing system. Users basically had a limited subset of the content creation tools, what made the SWG system so user-impressive was the content available, which was fundamentally stock game content.</p>
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<p>All five games produced by Iron Realms offer characters some way to buy their own house, although the security on such places vary from one game to the next. Because all five MMORPGs are text-based, each player sets their own creative limits based on their own imagination and what they want for their character. Even if the house is just a single room, it could be anything from a causal cabana to a formal meeting space befitting a palace. Aside from a plot of land or a room to decorate, owning a home comes with other benefits as well.</p>
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<h2>Why is MMORPG Player Housing Important?</h2>
<p><strong>Sense of Belonging</strong></p>
<p>Anyone can claim citizenship within a city, but homeowners are more likely to care about the laws of the city -- especially ones about real estate! It really gives players a sense of belonging when their character can invite friends and family into their personal home and show off their interior design talents. And players with large real estate investments are more likely to respect the laws of the city! In the popular Iron Realms game Achaea, the city of Cyrene places a wall on plots owned by city enemies, thus rendering the space unusable until the enemy has paid their fine and served out their sentence..</p>
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<p><strong>Organizational Purposes</strong></p>
<p>It’s not unusual for a member of guild, house, clan, or other organization to lend their personal property to the organizational membership. Unlike official buildings, it provides a more relaxed atmosphere. Members can meet there for either recreational purposes, or something more functionary like when interviewing potential members or hosting events with non-member allies or other groups. Imperian, another of the games produced by Iron Realms, is certainly no stranger to this. Clans are a good example of organizations within the MMORPG that use personal homes as organizational meeting spaces.</p>
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<p><strong>Overall Stability</strong></p>
<p>Player housing not only keeps the players coming back, but it also adds longevity to the MMORPG. I have a character in the Iron Realms game Lusternia that didn’t really work out. However, every so often I find myself logging in, just to check out my cool house! Unlike my real house it never needs dusting or vacuuming, the windows never need washed, and nobody’s complaining for me to pick my things up off the floor. I own property in other Iron Realms games also, and the best part is knowing that in most cases, nobody is able to enter without my expressed permission, and anything I leave in my virtual home will be there when I return -- unless it decays in my absense, of course!</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.ironrealms.com/player-housing">Player housing</a> is the lifeblood of social media games such as Second Life and IMVU, and keeps members logging back in as new and better upgrades for housing become available. However, <a title="player housing in WoW" href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Player_housing">World of Warcraft</a> manages to survive without the benefit of lockable houses, for either players or guilds. Whether it creates frustration for management and developers, risks changing the format or lore of the game, or whatever other reason, it’s just not an option there. As for me, I’ll continue playing my favorite text games from Iron Realms, where I can enjoy all the benefits of player housing at my leisure.</p>
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<p style="text-align: right;"><em>Author: Sid Jennings</em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>Editor: <a title="Contact the Editor" href="mailto:tony@ironrealms.com">Tony Celentano</a></em></p>http://www.ironrealms.com/player-housing-in-mmorpgs-is-it-here-yet#commentsMassivelymmoMMORPGPlayer HousingRunescapeSecond LifeStar Wars GalaxiesUltima OnlineWoWSat, 22 Oct 2011 15:43:04 +0000Aktillum of Achaea547 at http://www.ironrealms.com